In the living room of Dr. Saul Weinreb’s home is a framed copy of Maimonides’ Prayer for the Physician.
How ironic is it that Dr. Weinreb, a U.S. Army Reserve major commissoned to the Army Medical Deparatment Professional Management Command, returned recently from three months of service in Iraq. He was stationed at the 25th Combat Support Hospital in the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit.
A big part of this irony is that with the Maimonides prayer in his home, he is a frequent speaker, sharing his stories with the children at Yeshivat Rambam, the Maimonides Academy of Baltimore. He is a living, breathing “showing tell” example to the children.
He came back after healing people, because this is what he does.
But as important as the work he has done overseas, Dr. Weinreb, a physican at Franklin Square, is part of the day-to-day life that is Yeshivat Rambam. We’ve spent, all of us, an inordinate amount of time dicussing the future of this important school. Both of my daughters are Rambam graduates, so the school is part of our family story. We’ve reported in the Jewish Times on its funding issues and we’ve even discussed its future in the community. But we need Rambam, and it is a “fit” for hundreds of families. And though they haven’t had to go overseas and see war first hand, many of Rambam’s parents are heroes in their own ways.
The fact is, the real story of Rambam is the day-to-day life of its families. These are people who just want the best education that fits their child. And for many families here in Baltimore, Rambam is that fit.
So here one of its parents comes home from a mission thousands of miles away to talk to the children about what he had experienced in Iraq. He told our managing editor Alan Feiler (see story at jewishtimes.com), “We have to roll up our sleeves and do good things and say, `Hey, I’m Jewish,’ so people get a positive image. There’s no other way to get the world to change how it thinks of us.”
Those words fit right into the mission of Rambam, Torah Umadah, bringing the words of Torah into our contemporary lives.
Dr. Weinreb, the son of Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Congregation Shomrei Emunah’s former spiritual leader, no doubt makes the children at Rambam feel the pride through his service.
Dr. Weinreb, you make us all proud, the Rambam community and the entire Jewish community.
And we’re glad you’re home safe and sound.